Pic of the Day

I'm completely forgotten that Michael Fassbender is starring in a Netflix miniseries about the Kennedy clan -- the old-timey pre-President one -- called simply Kennedy. But here's the first photo of him in character on the set as Joe Kennedy Sr. (via, thx Mac) -- this means very little to me since I have no idea what Joe Kennedy looked like nor do I particularly care; and while I'm at it I'll admit I know and care very little about the Kennedy family from then. (I can tell you right now they're never gonna be as fascinating as the Bouvier-Beales were, that's for damn sure.) Anyway I will watch the series and believe whatever it tells me since on top of Fassy it co-stars Wyatt Russell, Cole Doman, Nick Robinson, Imogen Poots, Denis O'Hare, Toby Huss and Eddie Marsan among others -- if you wanna know who they're all playing click that link up above. I imagine they're timing this photo drop to the finale of Love Story about JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette, which dropped (like a pilot plane plummeting into the Atlantic) last night -- and before you tell me anything wait to do that until tomorrow, because I'm watching the finale tonight. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Good Morning, World

I finally started watching Ryan Murphy's Love Story series, the one about the romance between JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, and... I'm actually a little bit embarrassed by how riveted I'm finding it? Like I keep getting twenty minutes into an episode realizing I have completely put down my phone and am entirely lost in the show which I gotta tell ya doesn't happen a lot these days! And I really didn't expect that with this. I think they made a lot of smart choices -- getting Paul Anthony Kelly here to play John-John as genuinely dim (but not in a mean way, just in a way that seems honest and correct to his circumstances) being very much one of them...

... and also the show's just pushing a lot of my buttons. And I don't just mean JFK Jr. NYC in the 1990s as this idealized version of itself -- it's nailing what I was growing up looking at and thinking, "I want to go to there." Magazines existed! There was a media landscape! There was hope and freedom -- you'd bump into famous people all the time. A good time felt achievable in a way it doesn't now. They've captured the essence of what convinced me to move here in the year 2000... and then 9/11 and cell phones immediately ruined everything. Anyway the show's making me deeply nostalgic in a way I'm really enjoying basking in, and not just because of the steady banger after banger soundtrack of 90s faves. (I also have an IRL connection to the characters -- I am literally zero degrees of separation from one of them.) All that plus eye candy -- I'm digging it. Thoughts? Or just hit the jump for more gifs...

Paul Anthony Kelly Fourteen Times

Since the last time I posted pictures of Love Story John-John actor Paul Anthony Kelly -- an entire week ago! -- I still haven't started the series. I'm already watching The Beauty and I think I decided that I can only deal with one Ryan Murphy series at a time. i'll watch this once The Beauty's over, then. But I won't wait until then to post Kelly's new GQ cover-shoot...

... for extremely obvious reasons. Look at him! No he's not JFK Jr. but that's like saying the light beside my bed isn't the Sun. It still gets the job done. I have no desire to read the interview that goes along with these photos since I haven't watched the show yet and have no above-surface-level interest in this man but if you do and there's something interesting, do share. Personally we'll just hit the jump and ogle...

Paul Anthony Kelly Three Times

Alright I know some of you people are watching Ryan Murphy's Love Story series, detailing the tragic but deeply, deeply sexy romance between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette -- I haven't started it yet so tell me what you're thinking in the comments. I'm especially curious (because of course I am, JFK Jr. has a tag on this here website after all) about this fellow seen above's performance, since as incredibly handsome he clearly is I'm still not seeing John-John, at least visually, in the pictures I have seen from the show (as seen below). Oh but there's our boy Alessandro Nivola as Calvin Klein too -- I'm pretty excited to see that. But what are y'all thinking? I have seen mainly positive reviews so far!

Good Morning, World

When Paul Anthony Kelly was cast as John F. Kennedy Jr. in Ryan Murphy's upcoming series about the late lamented John-John's romance with Carolyn Bessette we took note that his Instagram account only had 400 followers and said it'd be interesting to note how many he had in a few months -- well he's over 7000 now, which still seems kinda low, but then the series (which is called American Love Story, presumably marking it as a spin-off anthology in the vein of American Horror Story) doesn't premiere until February. Press is just now kicking off it seems, starting with this photoshoot and interview with Mr. Kelly for Interview Magazine -- read it here. My guess is once the show premieres his follower count will really take off. Because follower counts are all that matter, yo! Anyway...

... dude is obviously crazy-handsome but I'm still not really seeing JFK Jr. -- seeing as how that's basically an impossible task though I will give him the benefit of the doubt until the show actually premieres. What I'm more worried about is whether he can act, seeing as how he's really a model, with next to no experience. The interview itself is fairly boring so I still have no clue, but I had missed a lot of the casting announcements which he mentions -- Grace Gummer is playing Caroline and Naomi Watts is playing Jackie! Oh, I do remember posting that Alessandro Nivola is playing Calvin Klein, now that I see that listed. (Hot.) Anyway guess we'll find out in a couple of months. Hit the jump for the rest of these photos...

Nothing Comes Between Me & My Alessandro

Finally I get to post about Papa Nivola! No offense to adorable Sam his son who's taken over Hollywood twinkdom with his turn on The White Lotus but Alessandro will always be my bread and butter, so I couldn't run here quick enough when I saw the news that not only does he have a new role... he's got a new GAY role. He's going to be playing none other than the one and only Calvin Klein in Ryan Murphy's upcoming miniseries American Love Story, about the whirlwind romance between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. Bessette was working as Klein's publicist in 1992 when she met John-John -- speaking of if you missed my post about model Paul Kelly who's playing JFK Jr. click here and familiarize yourself with that hotness. 

I guess there's a little bit of a physical resemblance between Alessandro and Calvin, something I never would've picked up on without this casting -- anyway you slap him in a white tee and jeans and let Alessandro do his thing (his thing being "act real good") and it'll work. And calling this a "gay" role is probably a bit of a stretch that will never meet those expectations because Calvin was of course married to Kelly Klein during this period, and also one assumes his personal life isn't going to be the focus of his scenes. But who knows! Leave it to Ryan Murphy to insist on a scene where Calvin is fitting Marky Mark for his tighty-whities.

(Which we should note was happening in 1992 on the dot!) But just in case the show doesn't have time for a Marky Mark excursion you can count on me to include a gif, at least! Ahhh those were the days. Anyway another nice side-effect of this casting news is I found this photoshoot of Nivola for Contents magazine that I somehow missed last fall around the time The Brutalist was landing -- read the chat here. Or hit the jump for all the as ever fine Papa Nivola pictures...

This Dude's Playing John-John

Say hello to Paul Kelly, a newcomer who according to Evan Ross Katz on Instagram will be playing John F. Kennedy Jr. in Ryan Murphy's upcoming miniseres American Love Story, which will tell the tale of John-John's whirlwind romance with Carolyn Bissette. Bissette will be played by actress Sarah Pidgeon (who's in the upcoming I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot) while JJ's mommy-dearest Jackie will be played by one Naomi Watts! I couldn't even dig up Paul Kelly's IMDb page but he does have an Instagram right here -- I took note of how many followers he has right now...

.... and I'll be curious to see how many he has in a few weeks, or months haha. I already followed him, that's for damn sure. ERK says Kelly beat out a thousand other actors for the role -- he's gorgeous obviously (I'm guessing he was a model given the photos you see here off his Insta) but I'm not sure I see Junior just yet. But who knows what magic they can work with a makeover. Shave him (his face only!) and give him that wavy 90s pompadour and anything could emerge! Not sure how I feel about this series in general, but Naomi will make a good Jackie, I think -- I might not have thought so before her role in Capote Vs The Swans but it totally makes sense now.

Who Wore It Best?

I contemplated needing to myself own one of the Loewe "I Told Ya" t-shirts that play a big role in Luca Guadagnino's tennis film Challengers... and then I saw that they retail for $300 and I decided no, notsomuch. I love the movie but it's a fucking t-shirt and I am too poor and too smart for that nonsense. That said actor and pretty young thing Manu Rios just posted a photo of himself wearing it (I doubt he had to pay for it) and I remembered that Loewe was ripping off a tee that noted perfect piece of ass John F. Kennedy Jr. wore back in the 90s and voila, a poll arose:

online polls

I Dream of John-John

Didja all see the news that Ryan Murphy is planning on making a limited-series called American Love Story that will tell the story of John F. Kennedy Jr's tragic romance with Carolyn Bessette? Yes I might be using this news as an excuse to post more pictures of John-John gracing Central Park with his hirsute presence back in the 90s, and what of it? Anyway this project is obviously impossible since there is no man on Earth who could play that man convincingly. Y'all come at me in the comments with suggestions (especially if you link to pictures of men who vaguely look like this!) but I'll accept nobody. He was one of a kind perfect.

Good Morning, World

(click to embiggen) Some days, some nights, some mid-afternoon teas, you just need a John-John fix (does anybody else hear "John-John" in the voice of Elaine Benes?), and last evening for me was one of them. I tweeted out four shots of the original prince of the tides John F. Kennedy Jr. in short-shorts (you can see that below) but I set aside this shot of him wandering the rocks of some no-doubt upscale schooning and fishing village in nothing but some tighty-whities for us this morning, as a treat. There are other shots from this moment that has thankfully been suspended in forever time thanks to modern technology, and you can find them if you lose yourself in our miniature but substantial enough JFK Jr. Archives at this link. I want back to this timeline.

Here are four photos of JFK Jr in shorts -- good night pic.twitter.com/eKkMpwizTm

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) September 29, 2020

Jackie 2: The John-John-ening

.

Now that Pablo Larraín has gone and somehow successfully made a biopic tackling one of the tougher political nuts to crack - I'd argue that making a good movie about Jackie and her enigmatic legacy is tougher than making one about her husband would be (not to mention far harder to cast so major props to Natalie for not dropping the ball!) - we turn our eyes to all we could think about in the film's later scenes as Little John-John showed up... that is to say... 

... Big John-John. I want a Junior Movie now! Or I want an excuse to post some (more) shirtless pictures of him - whichever, doesn't matter, one of the two. But I don't really know who could play him, since in his prime there was no one handsomer, ever, before or since. Any suggestions? Oh and hit the jump for another dozen or so pictures since that's what you're really here looking for...

15 Years

.

JFK Jr. died fifteen years ago today. Every time I'm in Central Park I mourn the fact that I never got to see him running around there half naked. See lots of that here.

Fassy Kennedy

.

Fernando Meirelles, the director of City of God and Blindness and The Constant Gardener, is making a movie based on the book Nemesis: The True Story of Aristotle Onassis, Jackie O, and the Love Triangle That Brought Down the Kennedys, which is about exactly what that excessively long title says it is about. Apparently Bobby Kennedy hated Onassis or something. Anyway Meirelles tweeted his desire the other day for Michael Fassbender to play Bobby (via). Whether that was kidding or wishful thinking or just another expression of the current all-consuming lust for constant Fassbender which we are all infected with, there it is. So?

.

poll by twiigs.com

.

That last option was just an excuse to post this pic of JFK Jr.

.

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... sunning with John-John.

.

Gratuitous JFK Jr.

.

In case it wasn't clear by this morning's mood, I'm feeling a little run-over today. Two Thom Yorke concerts two nights in a row took a lot out of this little man. (Oh I know, cue the world's tiniest violin armada.) Anyway I'm not here to whine (about my awesome life), I'm here to say that I'm not feeling especially imaginative this fine April afternoon. Thankfully I stumbled upon this link here, where an enormous gallery of John F. Kennedy Jr. pictures that were new to me awaited.


Now, that link is annoying for two reasons. First, you've gotta click through one by one by one, and that's annoying. Especially since they have over 160 pictures. I mean, I'm not doing anything, but y'all might have places to go or people to see, and maybe you need it condensed to the good stuff. That's what I'm here for. (Oh but before I get to that, the second reason the link's annoying is the pictures aren't big enough. Course, with JFK Jr. the only thing that'd equal "big enough" would be life-size, reanimated, and standing beside me, but that's beside the point.) Anyway! I picked out the good ones - which, considering JFK Jr. was The Perfect Man, there are lots of. Seriously. A lot.

But it's lunch-time, so turn off your brain and let that blood flow other places, ya know? And click the tag at the end of the post if you need even more (in which case, good grief!)

.